The present invention relates to chopstick eating appliances and, more specifically, to a novel holder for chopsticks which permits their easy usage.
Chopstick eating appliances are well known wherein a user grips both of a pair of identical elongated sticks and manipulates them so that their free ends can grip food morsels to move food from a dish or the like to the users mouth, or to any other location. It is known that persons unfamiliar with the use of chopsticks, particularly children, have great difficulty with their use. Even those familiar with the use of chopsticks may be come less adept in their use, due to illness, injury or advanced age.
Many appliances are known to assist in the learning to use, and use of chopsticks by adhering ends of each of a pair of sticks to a central pivot support so that their free ends can more easily be manipulated. These devices have used mechanical parts and springs; or employ expansion loops of complexly shaped resilient materials, which may or may not be reused.
It would be very desirable to provide a support for chopsticks which is easily used, and available without new production or development cost and which is free of dirt or other contamination and is so inexpensive as to be disposable.
In accordance a first embodiment of the invention, the well-known flexible, bellows type of plastic or paper sipping straw is provided with two equally long tubular segments extending from a central flexible bellows section. The straw is easily pre-sterilized and can be made on existing conventional commercial straw manufacturing equipment, but is trimmed to have approximately equal lengths on opposite sides of the flexible bellows. It can be packed with chopsticks, such as conventional wooden chopsticks dispensed in restaurants, or can be handed out separately to children and others needing help in the manipulation of the chopsticks.
In another embodiment, a standard fully tubular straw of paper or plastic can simply have a central notch, leaving a central web to permit the rotation of the ends of the tube. The central web must be sufficiently strong to provide an internal bias which tends to hold the tube in a straight line.
In use, each one of a pair of chopsticks is inserted into a respective end of the plastic or paper xe2x80x9cstraw.xe2x80x9d The diameter of the ends of the chopsticks (or their cross-sections) is preferably, but not necessarily sized to frictionally grip the straw interior. The intermediate bellows of the straw (or the notched web) then permits the chopsticks to rotate 180xc2x0, bringing their free ends together, but providing a slight force biasing the free ends apart and back toward their coaxial alignment.
Any desired plastic or paper material can be used, and any other desired material can be used for the appliance. The tubular extensions from the center may also have one or more parallel slits to allow the tubes to expand and thus better frictionally grip chopsticks of varying size and cross-sections.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention which refers to the accompanying drawings.